I posed a wide array of questions for inventor, futurist, and Singularitarian Dr. Ray Kurzweil on September 21, 2018, at RAAD Fest 2018 in San Diego, California. Topics discussed include advances in robotics and the potential for household robots, artificial intelligence and overcoming the pitfalls of AI bias, the importance of philosophy, culture, and politics in ensuring that humankind realizes the best possible future, how emerging technologies can protect privacy and verify the truthfulness of information being analyzed by algorithms, as well as insights that can assist in the attainment of longevity and the preservation of good health – including a brief foray into how Ray Kurzweil overcame his Type 2 Diabetes.
Freud’s notion of a dark, libidinous unconscious is obsolete. A new theory holds that the brain produces a continuous stream of unconscious predictions.
Amidst these complex security challenges and the sea of unknowns coming our way, what remains fundamental for the safety and security of the human race is the role of programmers and programming along with the integrity of semiconductor chips. The reason behind this is programmers can define and determine the nature of AWS (at least in the beginning) until AI begins to program itself.
Weaponized artificial intelligence is almost here. As algorithms begin to change warfare, the rise of autonomous weapons systems is becoming a terrifying reality.
Researchers at Google Brain and the University of California, Berkeley have developed an AI system that taught a quadrupedal robot how to walk from scratch.
A new wave of innovation is fueling a radical change in fashion. Wearable technology, data, automation and lab-grown materials will have a major impact on what people will be wearing in the future.
Since the birth of sewing and weaving, technology has always led developments in fashion. The Industrial Revolution mechanized manufacturing enabling mass production. In the 1960s synthetic materials like polyester took off, creating new possibilities for fashion.
Now the convergence of new technologies is opening up previously unimaginable possibilities. Self-styled fashion scientist Dr Amanda Parkes is in the vanguard of the industry’s latest reinvention. She heads up innovation at FT labs, a venture capital firm that invests primarily in disruptive fashion tech startups. Among these startups the race is on to find the next generation of renewable materials that can be grown in a lab. Traditional silk is produced from insect larvae that form cocoons, most commonly silkworms. But rather than relying on these insects bolt threads is creating silk in test tubes. Bio fabricated materials remove the need for animals and insects and they are a more sustainable and efficient way of producing raw materials.
Other companies are creating leather alternatives. Rather than using animals scientists are creating bio fabricated materials from pineapple leaves and even mushrooms. The convergence of fashion and technology also provides opportunities to transform not just clothes but the people wearing them.
The future is just over the horizon and we’re accelerating towards it. And while the famous Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future once said, “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads,” at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nissan revealed not only the future of road-based transportation but equally your future whip.
Driving in the future will not only be autonomous, but will also seamlessly integrate the virtual world into your physical domain using mixed reality, creating an all-around intelligent, connected, transportation ecosystem.
Originally started as a free-access university course, Finland’s “1 percent” AI scheme is now being rolled out nationally with the support of private companies and the government.
Inside Finland’s plan to train its population in artificial intelligence.
The Pentagon’s emerging technologies unit put out a call last week for proposals that use insect brains to control robots — because they could be used to create efficient new models for artificial intelligence, but also because they could be used to explore the meaning of consciousness.
“Nature has forced on these small insects drastic miniaturization and energy efficiency, some having only a few hundred neurons in a compact form-factor, while maintaining basic functionality,” reads a document in the proposal. “Furthermore, these organisms are possibly able to display increased subjectivity of experience.” It goes on to say that there’s evidence suggesting that “even small insects have subjective experiences, the first step towards a concept of ‘consciousness.’”.
